The invention relates to an attachable/detachable process cartridge, an attachable/detachable drum cartridge, an attachable/detachable developer cartridge, and an image forming device capable of employing an attachable/detachable process cartridge, an attachable/detachable drum cartridge, and/or an attachable/detachable developer cartridge.
Electrostatographic image forming devices may include an optical system, a photosensitive device (e.g., a photosensitive drum), a charging device arranged in the vicinity of the photosensitive device, a developer device (e.g., developer roller), a transfer device (e.g., transfer roller), and a cleaning means. In general, electrostatographic image forming devices record images by forming an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive device, forming a developer image by supplying developer to the formed electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive device, and transferring the developer image onto a recording medium. More particularly, for example, to form an image on a recording medium, the surface of the photosensitive drum is uniformly charged by the charging device before the surface is irradiated with a laser beam so as to form an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the image to be formed on the photosensitive drum. The latent image is then developed using a developer supplied by the developer roller such that a developer image is formed on the photosensitive drum. The developer image is then transferred to the recording medium by the transfer roller. After the visible image is transferred most, and preferably all, of any toner remaining on the photosensitive body is removed by the cleaning means.
In many of these image formation devices, many of the image forming components, such as, the photosensitive device, the charging device, the developer roller, the transfer roller and/or the cleaning means are provided, for example, in a process cartridge that is attachable to/detachable from the image forming device. Examples of such a process cartridge are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,041,203 and 6,546,217. Such process cartridges may be employed to facilitate, for example, replacement and/or maintenance operations of one or more of the components included in the process cartridge.
With such process cartridges, the photosensitive device and the developer roller may be attached to/detached from each other. Thus, it is possible to replace, for example, the developer roller independently of the photosensitive device. As a result, the burden on the environment can also be reduced because a usable photosensitive device cartridge need not be discarded in order to replace a deteriorated developer roller.
Recently, there has been an increased desire to recycle components used in printing devices in order to reduce the amount of environmentally harmful waste. For example, developer cartridges are made such that they can be refilled with toner in order to increase the lifetime of the developer cartridge. As the lifetime of developer cartridges may be increased by providing refillable developer cartridges, however, other components of the developer cartridge are more susceptible to wear and damage.
For example, developer cartridges may include paper guiding members that help transport the paper through an image forming device. Such paper guiding members may be molded as part of a process cartridge and may be susceptible to wear and damage from repeated contact with paper during printing. If the paper guiding member is damaged, paper may get jammed and/or damaged within the image forming device and the image forming process may be interrupted and/or the quality of the formed image may be reduced.